


A Night In

by Unusual_Raccoon



Series: Lauriver High School AUs [1]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Best Friends, F/M, Laurel and Ollie are Best Friends, Laurel swears a lot, Mentioned Dinah Drake - Freeform, Mentioned Vincent Sobel, Past Earth-2 Laurel Lance/Ricardo Diaz, Pre-Relationship, Self-Indulgent, but also high key in love with each other, i wrote this instead of doing homework, rated for language
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-22
Updated: 2020-11-22
Packaged: 2021-03-09 23:01:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,213
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27663763
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Unusual_Raccoon/pseuds/Unusual_Raccoon
Summary: Lamenting her shattered love life with her best friend takes a turn for Laurel.
Relationships: Earth-2 Laurel Lance & Oliver Queen, Earth-2 Laurel Lance/Oliver Queen
Series: Lauriver High School AUs [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2025764
Comments: 6
Kudos: 9





	A Night In

**Author's Note:**

> Have I been itching to write high school Lauriver? Yes. Did I think this would be 'it'? Nope, but enjoy anyway.

Laurel laid across her bed, her combat boots propped up against her headboard. A familiar weight joining her on her bed, feeling the playful jab of an elbow against her thigh. Even despite her sour mood, it was hard not to smile at the weight of her best friend leaning into her side. Ollie always made her feel better.

"What?" She asked without provocation, lifting her head from where she was laying so she could get a look at his face. Stupidly handsome face.

"Nothing." Oliver replied with a shrug, a broad hand coming up to scratch at the faint blonde stubble on his chin. Oliver was unnervingly patient, especially when Laurel was in one of her moods, and by the look on his face she knew he was waiting her out. She might as well spill to him.

"He's throwing a party." She said after a moment, her voice sounding unbearably dejected even to her own ears. She hated it. Hated him.

"Who?" Oliver asked, and his feigned ignorance would've been sweet if not for the fact that she was still pissed about the party.

"Ricardo." Laurel lamented, rolling over on her stomach to smother a scream into the old stuffed shark she had pillowed beneath her head.

"Oh." Oliver said, the intonation belaying his understanding.

Hurling the stupid shark across the room, Laurel winced as it connected with the far wall. A grateful smile pulling at her lips as she watched Oliver slink off of her bed to retrieve the plushy, dusting it off as he handed it back to her. He sank back down onto her bed, leaning back against the headboard.

"He's throwing a party, Ollie." She echoed, rolling onto her back, nearly knocking her lamp over with her clunky combat boots in the process,

"Yeah, I got that." He hummed, grinning as the shark impacted with his chest.

"He's throwing a stupid party and he _didn't_ invite me." She explained with a growl, grateful when Oliver passed the little plushy back to her to vent her frustration.

"Yeah, but you guys broke up..." Oliver informed, narrowly dodging the stuffed shark hurled back in his direction. That stupid handsome grin on his face as he stared back at her. Dammit, she was trying to stay mad. Of course Laurel knew she and Ricardo had broken up, she was sorta there for the whole ordeal.

"So...did you want him to invite you?" Oliver asked, chipped black polished nails, a result of their free period and boredom, standing out against the faded bluish grey felt of the stuffed toy.

Laurel grimaced at the question, "No, of course not. His party would be fucking lame anyways." She shot back, her sharp snark inarguably defensive.

"Totally fucking lame." Oliver conceded loyally, grinning at her grateful smile.

Sitting up fully, bleached blonde curls wild from her awkward position laying on the bed. Laurel snatched her stuffed shark back before flopping melodramatically back on her bed. The springs of the bed whinging in a way that she didn't want to think about with Ollie sitting next to her.

"He probably invited all of those annoying popular kids, like Vince Sobel and Dinah Drake." Laurel tacked on with a grimace, it wasn't a secret that she and the all-star girl's soccer player weren't friends. They had a bit of a rivalry because of one stupid game of spin-the-bottle in the eighth grade. Now that they were in high school, Dinah liked to be all compliments and smiles, like she was taking the high ground - bullshit.

"I hate that guy." Oliver added, arms folded across his broad chest.

Laurel snorted, playfully knocking the rounded tip of her boot against his side.

"You only hate him because I hate his girlfriend." She pointed out.

"So?" He shot back with a grin, Laurel loved it when he took her side, it probably meant she was a bad influence or something, but she still loved it.

Laurel feigned a gag as a realization came to her while she picked at the frayed tatters of her ripped jeans.

"I bet you fifty bucks-"

"You don't have fifty bucks." Oliver interrupted.

"Yeah, but you do," Laurel corrected, bumping her leg against his, "and I know I'm going to win this one."

Oliver chuckled, motioning for her to continue.

"I bet you fifty bucks that she's wearing fishnets at Ricardo's stupid fucking party - she only wears fishnets because of me." She said vehemently.

"Can you imagine?" She grumbled rhetorically.

"Dinah Drake in fishnets?" Oliver asked, a stupid grin on his face, "No...Never."

"Asshole." Laurel hissed, hurling the stuffed shark at his dumb pretty face.

"Ow," He whined, tossing the plushy back to her, "I was joking." He pointed out. Laurel huffed, clutching her stuffed shark, kicking at Oliver's hands where she felt them curl around her calves.

"Fuck off - you totally have the hots for her." She hissed, attempting to wriggle out of the distractingly hot hands curled around her legs.

"It was a joke." Oliver emphasized, angling his head to get a look at her face. Laurel didn't want to look at him, at his pretty dimpled smile, and ridiculously blue eyes.

"You've always had a thing for her," Laurel accused, "Ever since that fucking game of spin-the-bottle." Her cheeks felt hot, flushed with embarrassment, she could still picture them leaving the spacious closet in Oliver's bedroom, the sparkly lip gloss Dinah had been wearing smeared on Ollie's mouth...

"Hold on, that's why you hate her? Because of a game of spin-the-bottle?" Oliver asked, surprised by her accusation no doubt, but clear headed enough to look at the entirety of her argument. It certainly sounded stupid and juvenile when he put it like that.

Laurel let out a frustrated sigh, cheeks hot and her anger somehow fizzling out. She had just wanted one night to relax and not think about this dumb infatuation. Just one damn night.

"It's wasn't just the game," Her words coming out unbearably fast, "I made the mistake of thinking I could trust her, I mean for fucks sake she knew I liked-" Her ears throbbed with the same unruly blush that colored her cheeks as Laurel stopped herself short of admitting something unspeakable. That was unbelievably close. Nope, she had made the mistake of telling someone about her feelings before, and that had backfired. It was bad enough that her stupid hormone-flooded brain thought almost exclusively of Oliver Queen, she didn't want her dumb feelings to ruin their friendship too.

She wished she could rewind the conversation, suck up all her words and make it like they had never been uttered. Why couldn't they just go back to shit-talking her ex and his stupid party?

The silence was deafening now, Oliver's swallow was audible, his sharp Adam's apple, that Laurel desperately wanted to fit her teeth around, bobbed against his throat.

"Knew that you liked...who?" He echoed, his voice cracking, something Laurel would've usually poked fun at, if not for her wild mess of emotions.

"Nothing, Ollie, just fucking forget it." Laurel sighed, rolling back onto her stomach, burning face buried against the stupid stuffed shark that somehow smelled like Oliver's cologne. She could hear him sigh, his broad back thumping back against the headboard with a defeated amount of force.

"Laurel..." Oliver prodded quietly.

"Just leave me alone, Ollie." Laurel mumbled, her words muffled against the felt of the stuffed shark. It was honestly a miracle Oliver had remained her friend for as many years as he had. One of their friends had joked that they were friends from a past life, reincarnated from butterflies or some shit, she didn't really know, but she knew Oliver knew her better than she knew herself sometimes.

She flinched at the cautious press of his palm against the back of her leg, it was warm and familiar, and stupidly distracting.

"I can't do that." He murmured, voice unbearably tender. God, he really wasn't going to make this easy.

"Ollie, just go." Laurel persisted, hating how hard it was to swallow past the lump in her throat. She hated crying, it was stupid, and childish, and it fucking ruined her eyeliner.

"Just talk to me, please." He implored, just as stubborn as she was.

Laurel sighed, rolling back over to sit up, knowing quite well she looked a mess, her nose turned red and eyeliner smeared. Staring at him and the sweet encouraging curl of his smile, she felt a hot stab of guilt at the way she had lashed out at him. It wasn't his fault she was in love with him.

"Fine I'll go first, I never liked Dinah Drake anyway, seriously fuck her," He said, encouraged by Laurel's small sniffly laugh, "fuck her to the moon and back." Laurel laughed a little harder, her chest all warm at Oliver's attempts to cheer her up. 

"She did that whole annoying campaign for student body president." He continued his complaining, earning another bout of laughter from Laurel.

"So tasteless." Laurel chimed in with a grin, smiling wider at Oliver's husky laughter. Her stomach swarmed with a frenzy of butterflies, god, why did he have to be so fucking cute?

" _So_ tasteless." He echoed with a grin.

"And yeah, I have seen her wear fishnets and I'll tell you what," Oliver paused, smirking at Laurel's little annoyed frown.

"What?" Laurel asked a bit reluctantly.

"She doesn't look half as good as you do in them." Oliver said, smile bright, cheeks colored with a warm blush. The admission making Laurel dizzy, her foot thumping against Oliver's leg.

"Ow, what?" He whined, rubbing at the spot where she had nudged him.

"You can just say shit like that, Ollie." Laurel admonished, her head throbbing from her persistent blush.

"Why not? I meant it." Oliver shot back foolishly, catching the underside of her knee when she reared back to thump him again for making her heart give a frantic leap in her chest. The hot curl of his fingers against the back of her knee knocked the air straight from her lungs. They remained stuck like that, his hot palm glued to the soft inside of her knee, burning even through the fabric of her jeans.

Frustrated and fearful at the thought that Oliver might reciprocate even a fraction of her feelings, Laurel did the thing she usually did, she acted impulsively. Throwing the plush shark that had gone too long without being aimed at his ridiculously handsome face. Laurel felt emboldened by the distraction.

"I like you." She blurted out just as Oliver caught the stuffed shark, the plushie held between his big hands like a football. Her throat hot and stomach churning as she watched his ease the toy aside to reveal his wide smile.

"I like you too." Oliver responded, too quick, like the words had been waiting to leap off of his tongue.

Laurel rolled her eyes, "I mean as more than friends, dumbass."

Her name calling only making him smile wider, "So do I." Oliver said with a grin.

Folding her arms over her chest, Laurel nervously chewed the inside of her cheek, if they were sharing, she might as well share all there was to share.

"I've liked you for awhile...like since eighth grade awhile." She admitted, cheeks hot, stomach seizing at Oliver's scoff. Preparing an insult in the event that this was all just some really bad joke.

"You think you got it bad?" Oliver teased, "I've been holding onto this since the sixth grade."

His words gave her pause, mouth agape as she registered what he had said. Her heart pounding wildly in her chest. Was this really happening?

"Seriously? Laurel asked, teeth digging into the swell of her bottom lip.

"Seriously." Oliver echoed, a smirk on his lips. Butterflies buzzing unrepentantly in her stomach.

Laurel felt giddy, lips spread into an overwhelmed smile. She balked at the soft impact of the plush shark connecting with her chest.

"Hey!" She whined amidst an uncharacteristically dainty giggle. The sound only briefly interrupted by the startling press of Oliver's lips against hers. She squeaked into the kiss, moaning at the cautious poke of his tongue against the seam of her lips. Her fingers digging into his clothed shoulder as she kissed back, practically delirious at the careful dip of his fingers into the shredded knee of her jeans.

They pulled back, breathless, cheeks hot and lips wet with the taste of each other. They leaned into each other, her forehead playful bumping against his, humming a vibrantly happy sound at the nearness.

"Can I tell you something?" Oliver asked in a smiley whisper, Laurel smothered her giggle against his cheek, as though they hadn't done enough sharing for one night.

"Mhmm." She hummed affirmatively.

"I love you."

Laurel trembled unabashedly at the admission, her smile wide and chest hot. Her fingers stroking over his cheek, her nails hissing against the prickly blonde stubble.

"I love you too...dumbass." She shot back, squealing a laugh as she and Ollie rocked back onto her bed.

Ricardo Diaz was an asshole who threw bad parties and had a hard-on for arson, but, Laurel was infinitely grateful for his stupid party, grateful because it gave her _this_.

**Author's Note:**

> So...that happened?
> 
> I actually had a ton of fun with this. Fun fact this was the result of me ignoring writing about the human development during adolescence for an assignment...
> 
> Anyway, if you enjoyed this fic, please don't hesitate to leave a comment, I love to know what my readers have to say.


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